Cavemen need a big finish

December 28, 2005|JEREMIAH HAWN Tribune Staff Writer

It was a tale of two teams for the Mishawaka wrestling team at the Al Smith Invitational Tuesday. With seven wrestlers already advancing to the semifinals in the winner's bracket, the Cavemen looked poised to have a shot at breaking their 15-year tournament championship drought. But in the last hour of the tournament, Scott Versyp (130), Brandon Mersich (135), Caleb Norville (145), Jamie Lukaszewski (189) and Randy Morin (275) were all eliminated in the loser's bracket, giving the second-place Cavemen only eight wrestlers for today's final competition. Compare that with first place Merrillville's and third place Belmont's 10 wrestlers competing today and Mishawaka will need a lot from its remaining eight. Mishawaka started the day out hot with all 14 wrestlers winning to advance to the second round. Four wrestlers lost in the second round and one in the third leaving seven undefeated wrestlers, one more than Belmont and two more than Merrillville. But the wheels started to come off in the loser's bracket and Brandon Straub (160) was the only Caveman to stay alive. "We wrestled as well as we could until that last hour of the tournament," said Mishawaka coach Darrick Snyder. "And then we wrestled about as poorly as we could. We had guys that found a way to lose matches they should have won." "If you have an off match and lose your focus in this tournament, you're gonna pay for it and we had guys lose matches that they had no business losing." Despite the losses, Mishawaka still has a fighting chance against Merrillville if it can pull out a few champions. And with one No. 1 seed Ian Hinton (171) and No. 2 seeds, Josh Harper (103) and Benji Dolly (152), leading the way, Mishawaka can gain some momentum heading into the finals. Nick Wiesjahn (112), Matt Brothers (119), Clinton Leazenby (125) and Pat Day (215) are also wrestling in the semifinals for Mishawaka. "We really need guys to get pins if they can, and we have to get guys into the finals (today)," said Snyder. "If we don't get a handful of guys in the finals, we're done." There was only one big first- round upset. Penn's Josh McCollester pulled out a tough 5-4 decision over No. 2 seed Nick Kraus of New Prairie in the 171-pound weight class. McCollester reversed Kraus after an early takedown, scored on a front headlock and rode out the lead for the win to beat the higher ranked wrestler. He then followed up the big win with a pin in 2:46 over David Tucker of Jasper and a 14-5 major decision over Eric Boal of St. Joseph's to head to the semifinals. "I like being the anonymous man," said McCollester. "When kids hear your name, they get all hyped up to wrestle you and you have a target on your back. I like being the hunter rather than the hunted." Kraus's teammate, Phil Oudhius (160), had a bit better luck, upsetting No. 1 seeded Ian Mersich of Adams, 6-1, to advance to the semifinals. "I've had tough matches all day, but when I wrestled him, I felt like he was a lot lighter than the other guys I've wrestled," said Oudhius. "I noticed I could get a good takedown, so I took him down and rode him out. That was my strategy, to get points on him." Penn, Clay, Jimtown and Northridge all had three wrestlers advance to the semifinals. Penn is in fifth place with 109 points and advanced Mitch Miller (145), McCollester (171) and Jerimiah Maggart (189). One big loss for the Kingsmen was No. 2 seed Steven Sandefer, dropping a 9-3 decision to Jon Gomez of Hobart. Clay finished sixth with 92 points and advanced Ryan Salata (103), Steve Salinas (112) and Jeremy Burnside (125). Northridge is 14th and advanced Ross Powell (130), Troy Miller (140), and Joe Gibson (189). Jimtown finished 17th with 56 points and advanced Scott Kindig (119), Johnny Brown (135) and Ryan Konrath (152). The tournament will conclude today at Mishawaka High School. Team scores: Merrillville 143.5, Mishawaka 136.5, Bellmont 131, Hobart 116.5, Penn 110, Clay 92, East Noble 91, Goshen 83.5, Valparaiso 71.5, Elkhart Memorial 68.5, Prairie Heights 68.5, Princeton 67.5, Warsaw 63, Northridge 61, Chesterton 60, Jasper 59.5, Jimtown 56, Benton Central 55, New Prairie 55, Riley 53.5, Lawrence North 53, Lake Central 46, Calumet 45, Lowell 37.5, Wawasee 35, Washington 34, Peru 32, Rochester 30, LaPorte 27, St. Joseph's 24, Adams 22.5, Bremen 19